Fall 2008 Brings Changes to the Blog

Update August 5, 2008:

All of the Washington State Library blogs have been consolidated in a new location!  The address for one stop shopping is:

http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/library/

Hope to see you there!

Some of you have been kind enough to email and remind us that it’s been ages since our last post.  Yes, indeed it has – and we apologize!  But we’re happy to announce that as of this week, the Washington State Library Public Services Blog will be moving to a new home on the Secretary of State’s website:

http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/wslpublic/

While we’ve been very happy with WordPress over the last two years, we’re even more happy to find a permanent home on our official servers! 

What this means for you:

• Those of you whose computers were blocked from accessing blogging websites like WordPress should now be able to access our most recent news and features.
• You shouldn’t notice any change in our content.  We’ll still feature Newspaper Gems, Government Documents, and notices about our Events.  We’re also looking at the possibility of posting book reviews and expanding our Research Success Stories.
• You may think that things look a little sparse compared to our digs on WordPress, but we’re working to recreate much of the content found on the tabbed pages here on the State Library’s website. 
• This is a great time to let us know what features you’d like to see here.  If you have ideas about Washington, Northwest, or State Library- themed content you’d like to read about, just leave a comment.  You can also drop us an email at: askalibrarian@secstate.wa.gov.  We read all our comments and are eager to gather new ideas on how to improve.

Thanks to all of you who have supported this “little blog that could”!  Please visit us at our new home:

http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/wslpublic/

Genealogy Databases at the Washington State Library

Many of our patrons are already aware of our standing subscriptions to Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest, but the Washington State Library also has some new databases that will definitely be of interest to family historians. 

Footnote

The Footnote.com collections feature documents, most never before available before on the Internet, relating to the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, U.S. Presidents, historical newspapers and naturalization documents.

At the Washington State Library, you have special access to images that are normally part of their paid subscription services. You don’t need to sign in or register to view these images or any other content on Footnote while you are here.

Historic Map Works Library Edition (distributed by ProQuest)
Trial subscription through Sept 5 2008

We have not purchased this database, but we just started a trial run which ends September 5.  Please drop in before it’s over and let us know what you think! Your feedback helps us decide which databases to purchase for our library.

Here is a description from the creators:

Our high quality, full color digital collection of historic maps is one of the most extensive available. The core of the collection consists of over 100,000 cadastral, land ownership maps detailing the geographic and development history of the United States over several hundred years. There is extensive coverage of rural and suburban areas, as well as cities and towns across America.

Why not stop by and give these valuable genealogy resources a spin?  The smart genealogist avoids costly personal subscription fees and uses the databases at the State Library for free!  Information on our open hours and directions can be found here.

Washington State Students are National History Day Winners!

Washington State was well represented at the National History Day competition in Maryland this year!  51 Washington students, the top winners from the statewide History Day held back in April at the University of Washington, traveled to College Park to take on the best student historians from around the country.  And when the dust cleared and the awards were handed out, Washingtonians grabbed an astonishing number of prizes!

Most notable of these prize winners is Stanwood’s Amy Christianson who won National History Day’s Top Prize, the David van Tassel Scholarship.  The prize is a four-year, all expenses paid scholarship to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  Congratulations, Amy!

The many other top medalists from Washington are described in detail on the Washington History Day blog.  The complete list of winners from across the country is found on the National History Day site.  Congratulations to all of these student scholars who helped Washington State achieve the second highest medal total out of all the competing states! 

Inspired?  Why not take some time over summer vacation to begin work on a project for next year’s History Day?  2009’s theme is “The Individual in History.”  More information can be found on Washington’s History Day page at the Washington State Historical Society’s website.

2008 Events Rewind

Our 2007-2008 Evening Events wrapped up in an extremely satisfying way on May 22 when Washington Reads authors Jess Walter (Citizen Vince) and Jim Lynch (The Highest Tide) met up at the State Library to speak about their friendship and lives as writers.  Jess and Jim regaled the audience with readings from the works and stories about how their shared journalism experience influenced their writing.  The small size of the audience also allowed them to take questions and give hints about which projects might be next for this Award Winning duo.  What a great experience for everyone involved!

Our Brownbag series of Events also wrapped up on May 29 when the ladies of the Conservation Kitchen returned to demonstrate more economical and effective conservation strategies.  We’ve uploaded some pictures of Marcea’s creation of a paperback book cover so you can see her at work.  More information on this series can be found on our Handouts page.

Pictures from both events can be found on Flickr.  Thanks to everyone who made this years events – from Lucia Perillo to Jim and Jess and everyone in between – so very successful.  See you next year!